With those headlined words in the post-game, Tom Renney showed some of the competitive fire he keeps well-hidden in his belly most nights. While he came up well short of where he could have gone — the consensus at Cult of Hockey’s live blog seemed to be “take the fine, Tom!” — the look on his face when he delivered those words said plenty while likely saving himself a pile of money. (Historical note:Renney was later fined $10,000)

Now it must be said that Renney had plenty of reasons to be frustrated with his own troops and even himself on this night, but his exasperation with the officials was shared by an explosion on Twitter and our chat room that went far beyond the usual hotheads like me and reverberated around the ‘sphere. The officiating in this game was nothing short of atrocious, as the Vaudeville act of Leggo and Peel allowed any manner of slewfoots (slewfeet?), head shots, high sticks, slashes, and pretty much anything that didn’t involve Deigning To Check Dustin Brown, which has been a penalty for years and was again tonight. Three times in a row, in fact; call it the Dustin Brown Natural Hat Trick, as the Kings’ easy-falling captain closes in on yet another Greg Louganis Trophy as the league’s most accomplished diver. The softness of these calls coupled with a couple missed the other way — Devan Dubnyk slewfooted from behind, Nick Schultz rattled by an apparent head shot that sent his helmet flying into a different time zone, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins conked on the noggin by a stick that apparently fell out of the rafters of the Staples Center but somehow went unseen and unheard by the four officials. All told, it was a poor display of officiating unacceptably far below minimum standards.

And all that said, er, ranted, the Oilers lost this one on (de)merit. Thanks largely to another Herculean effort by Devan Dubnyk, Edmonton somehow survived that second period run of Kings powerplays still tied 0-0, and lost it in the third. The Kings opened the scoring in the opening minute of that final frame just after Ales Hemsky emerged from the box after serving an incredibly chintzy hooking penalty, but it was the Oil who had the one big opportunity with the man advantage in the final frame, a four-minute chance when Colten Teubert had the forethought to provide irrefutable circumstantial evidence by bleeding. Those minutes were entirely wasted without a sniff, or a shot — the powerplay hadn’t been worth waiting for, after all. The Oilers were done by then, worn down by a bigger, stronger, more desperate, more rested, and frankly superior opponent. The last minutes brought nothing but more futility until a series of bad decisions and poor executions led to the Kings 2-on-1 that put it away at 2-0.

For a third consecutive game the Oilers were outshot by exactly 18 shots, 37-19 this time and 102-48 over the three games since Ladi Smid and Jeff Petry went down. That margin was no fluke, as shots that didn’t hit the target were 36-18 Kings. Faceoffs were 35-18 Kings. This all jives with the observation that the home team seemingly had the puck two-thirds of the time.

Monday night Corey Potter joined fellow concussion victim Theo Peckham along with the stalwarts Smid and Petry on the sidelines, as the Oilers iced a defence crew reminiscent of the brief but terrifying Sebastien Bisaillon Era. With every single defender playing at least one storey above his comfort level, these last games have been a more or less continuous adventure of the puck being stuck in Edmonton territory for extended stretches, and Monday night was certainly no exception. The scoring chance meter was even less kind than the shot clock, as the Oilers generated just 7 chances on the night compared to 21 by the Kings. Did I mention they lost on merit?

#4 Taylor Hall, did not play — The Oilers sorely miss the emotional leader of the forward group.

#5 Ladi Smid, did not play — The Oilers sorely miss the emotional leader of the defence corps.

#6 Ryan Whitney, 4 – The mobility-challenged defender has been struggling to get by on the second pairing, and is out of his depth at the moment against the toughs. Played 26½ hard minutes and almost 50 over the two nights, so I’m reluctant to be too harsh. Still, it was his bad giveaway just inside Oilers’ line which started the sequence of pain that became the game-losing goal.

#10 Shawn Horcoff, 5 – Was involved in a couple of the Oilers’ better chances, including a nice feed to Barker on a shorthanded 2-on-1. Was solid on the PK in general, but was caught out slightly after the expiry of the last one by Anze Kopitar, just the kind of guy who’ll make you pay. Had his stick slashed right out of his hands on his best opportunity, a penalty 9 times out of 10 but not tonight.

#13 Cam Barker, 6 – Was easily the best of the Oilers’ defence group, not something I thought I’d ever be saying in one of these ever-dwindling game reports. Credit where due, though, Barker looked good for entire shifts at a time, and had good stats to back it up. He and partner Sutton had the toughest zone starts (10 defensive, just 3 offensive), saw plenty of L.A.’s finest, and emerged ahead on the shot count by 9-6 on Barker’s watch. That made him the only such plus player on the entire team, which was outshot 28-8 with Barker on the bench. Did a great job denying entry to the zone on a couple of solid hits just inside the blueline, was mostly sound with the puck with zero (official) giveaways and some decent outlet passes, had two of the defence group’s three shots on goal, and backed it all up with a modest but pristine Neilson number of +2/-0 on a night the rest of the defence crew was torn apart.

#14 Jordan Eberle, 5 – Had some nice jump early in the game but his energy seemed to wane along with the minutes.

#15 Nick Schultz, 4 – Seemed to visibly tire in the back half of the California doubleheader, a set which saw him log 45 hard minutes. Posted the worst Corsi on the team at a scary -18, and while he put up three hits, three blocked shots, and a bag of defensive tricks, he was caught out on both goals, a poor clearing pass on one and failure to cut off the 2-on-1 pass on the second.

#16 Darcy Hordichuk, 4 – Played 5:21 and posted the following stats: 0 shots, 0 hits, 0 anything, and all zeroes across the Neilson board. His statistical claim to fame is surely the fact that his EV shot differential of -2 was actually the best among Oilers forwards. Before you get too excited, that’s +1/-3, so his ratio was as bad or worse than the higher event players, he just had the fewest minutes, as usual.

#19 Bryan Rodney, 1 – Egads. Played a shade over 13 minutes in his Oiler debut in a weak third pairing that couldn’t possibly be sheltered heavily enough. Held away from the Kopitar line and deployed mostly against Plumber Bob types like (ahem) Jarret Stoll and Dustin Penner, the Oilers were nonetheless outshot 14-2 and outscored 1-0 during Rodney’s 11½ adventure-filled minutes. He was caught in no-man’s land on the clinching goal, though in fairness with three minutes left and a 1-0 deficit, it’s not the worst idea for the defenceman to join the rush as the fourth man.

#20 Eric Belanger, 4 – An utter non-factor at even strength, largely in defensive zone assignments. Made his own job tougher by struggling on the dot (3/8=38%; in fact all six Oilers who took a faceoff were below 50%).

#23 Linus Omark, did not play — I thought of him more than once as the Oilers struggled to generate any offence whatsoever, especially after the plumbers found the pine and the top lines were clearly flagging. A rested Omark might have been a useful option to have on the bench.

#25 Andy Sutton, 6 – Was easily Oilers second best defenceman, on the only effective pairing. His shots, Neilsons etc. weren’t quite as good as Barker’s, but he held his own against tough zone starts and comp, and found time to land five hits and block five shots to lead the club in both departments.

#28 Ryan Jones, 4 – Was caught napping on the first LA goal when he came far too low in the slot to adequately cover his man, Slava Voynov, who snuck off the point to unleash an uncontested bomb from the top of the circle. Was part of an effective penalty kill but he had nothing going offensively at all.

#33 Colten Teubert, 2 – Struggled nearly as much as his partner in that overmatched third pairing. Similarly sheltered, and similarly lit up on shot clock (+3/14) and Neilson (an ugly +0/-6). Tended to get sucked too far out into the zone, and often was a late arrival to the front of the net after the puck had been and gone. Did land four hits, and showed a real good stick on three different occasions where he averted an even more serious emergency with a nice check. On one of them he was guilty of Deigning To Check Dustin Brown, however, so Teubert found himself in the box after making what against an ordinary mortal would have been a perfectly legal (not to mention excellent) play by sprawling to sweep the puck away first and upend the man second. Did show some patience with the puck a time or two, in the rare moments he was given time to think.

#37 Lennart Petrell, 5 – Did play, but one had to be paying attention to notice. Generated a couple of half decent shots, a hard wrist shot from outside and a decent backhand from tighter range, and didn’t give up much at all.

#40 Devan Dubnyk, 8 – DD doubled down on his dominant display against the Ducks with another show-stopping performance. Was brilliant through 40 minutes in turning aside 28 shots, before finally being overpowered by Voynov’s blast to open the third. Got lucky a time or two, losing a couple of rebounds only to have Smyth save his bacon on both occasions. For the most part, though, he was square to the shooter and sealing up the slivers. Stopped 67 of 70 shots over the two nights, stealing one game outright and giving his team a decent chance to theft another.

#55 Ben Eager, 4 – Seven minutes on the ice, seven more in the box. Had a long tilt with Jordan Nolan after the Kings’ rookie had wallpapered Eager in the corner. Brought a little more energy to this game than in Anaheim, where he was entirely invisible, but the Oilers were badly otuplayed in his time, with Edmonton attempting just 2 shots and the Kings 12.

#56 Teemu Hartikainen, 4 – After scoring both goals in Anaheim in his debut with RNH and Eberle, was inexplicably removed from that unit and placed on an ineffective trio with Gagner and Hemsky. As one who tries to think along with the coach I have to admit I could make zero sense out of this move. Have no idea what the logic was, but there’s a big fat zero on the scoreboard that says that it didn’t work. Ended the night with zero shots or attempted shots (a metric which seems to be a good barometer for this player), one hit, and little impact on the game.

#83 Ales Hemsky, 5 – Got right back on the horse after his bad shoulder ended his night early in Anaheim, and played … passably. Led the Oilers with 4 shots and 7 attempts, and tied for the team lead with one incredibly lame penalty for Deigning To Check Dustin Brown. (In case you need a reminder as to why I’m so ticked, that would be the same Dustin Brown who sidelined Ladi Smid with a questionable hit which, needless to say, went unpenalized.)

#89 Sam Gagner, 2 – Just a brutal game, ineffective on the attack and derelict defensively, both by eye and by stat. His Neilson number of +1/-5 was by far the worst of the forwards, as was his shot differential (-7 ) and Corsi (-15). On one extended own zone sequence he was rooted to one spot and spinning around to the point that he reminded me of an early-style table hockey player. In the o-zone he fired wide on his best opportunity, a distressing habit of late. Later still he chose by far the worst option in a four-man rush, shooting from the boards, missing the short side by about ten feet (seriously!), and having the puck ricochet right out of the zone and into a waiting 2-on-1 the other way. Game. Over.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 6 – Had some jump on a rejigged line with Eberle and Smyth, generating Oilers’ most dangerous shot at even strength when he tested Jonathan Quick with some quick of his own. Posted the top Neilson number on the team at +3/-0. Was dogged in his defensive zone coverage, and had some real good moments in transition as usual. Took a marginal penalty for Deigning To Check Dustin Brown.

#94 Ryan Smyth, 6 – Bonus point for his two goal-saving defensive plays, one of which worked out better than it might have when he managed to dislodge the net before the puck went in, but the second of which was a fine puck battle involving some crafty use of his skate just inches from the goal line.

Tom Renney, 3 – Showed some spirit during the game and again when deftly sidestepping the fine afterwards. Started the right goalie, didn’t have a whole lot of choice with his defence, but made some questionable personnel decisions up front, especially the switch-out of Hartikainen.

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.